Category Archive

Imagine you are feeling overwhelmed, you’ve been unable to sleep and you have been tossing and turning almost every night. As you lay in bed you can’t turn off your thoughts. You finally get to sleep, but when you wake your heart is beating quickly for no reason and you are feeling a bit scared about all of this. You may feel sad and a bit hopeless about how you are feeling.

You are frustrated that you can’t feel better. You want to take care of this yourself, but at some point you realize you can’t.

When we are depressed and/or anxious our brains are simply not working optimally. The shifting of the vital neurotransmitters in our brains, in addition to hormonal dysfunction can really throw us off center and can cause a steady stream of negative and painful thoughts. This is part of the human condition and can happen to anyone. There are thousands of very high functioning people who are suddenly faced with a crisis or set of losses or disappointments that cause the brain to shift out of sync. In fact, according to USA Today article from 2/7/2013, up to 39% of young adults reported increased stress and many had been subsequently diagnosed with either depression or anxiety (the top stressors reported were money, work and relationships).

When you realize you need to find a therapist, it can be feel like a daunting task- to find a person who you can feel comfortable with and who will actually help you. Maybe you saw a therapist in the past and she/he did not help you, maybe they helped a little but you were disappointed, maybe they were nice but did not give you the feedback you hoped for.

Finding a mental health professional you really connect with is hard enough; most of us end up looking for one when we are at our most vulnerable. Add to that the scheduling, finding a babysitter and commuting to their office, and the process can seem daunting. Telehealth is most useful in those times when, for so many reasons, we cannot get to a therapist’s office or there is no good therapist around who has the hours we need.

When I meet with someone online through the confidential website Breakthrough.com, I am with you 100%, helping you to clarify what is going on in your life that is causing you distress. My goal is to foster an honest collaborative conversation in a trusting and safe environment.

If you have experienced stress, sadness, depression or anxiety and have some of above symptoms remember you are experiencing the human condition! It happens to most of us in our lives- times we are feeling so overwhelmed that we can’t think straight. We can feel angry, sad, frustrated, hopeless, and anxious and we think we can’t be helped. But this is not true

Our brains are marvelous things! We create ideas, beliefs, meaning of everything we do and see in our brain. Our brains are always trying to make sense of the world around us. Most times our brains function wonderfully, but sometimes it goes “off track” and get into a “negative groove” whereby everything we think is negative. But we can change the way we think about things absolutely. As we reframe how we see things, we can come to understand we have the POWER to look at our concerns in ways that are useful rather than destructive.

I help each client week by week understand themselves and reframe their circumstances so they can see what I already know – They are resilient, courageous and stronger than they think they are. It is a glorious journey to find your authentic self.

After working in the private sector for several years, Barnett received a Masters Degree in Integral Counseling Psychology at the Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. She has been successfully working with individuals, families and couples for 14 years.